Brett Eagleson and Elizabeth Miller share a painful family history: They each lost their father in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11th, 2001.
Miller was 6 when her firefighter father, Douglas, died. Although he had once made more money as an electrician, she said, firefighting was his passion, so he switched careers when his wife, Laurie, told him, "Go for your dream, Doug." Miller recalls him as devoted to his job, but also playful, sometimes staging "practice fire drills" at home by tying ropes around his kids' waists and lowering them from a banister. Other times, he pretended to pack one of them into his duffel bag and take them to work.
"He made everything fun," Miller said.
Eagleson was 15 when his father, Bruce, was killed. He remembers his dad as "a character in all senses of the word." Once, when Brett's mother, Gail, said she wished someone else would help cook, "my dad decided, well, I'm going to make dinner, and when I make dinner, I'm going to go to the nth degree," so he not only made a meal, but also created a gourmet-style menu for his family to choose from, Eagleson recalled.
"He was energetic. He was a leader. He was a role model for me and my brothers," he said. "He was just a good, caring person."
Both men died 24 years ago on Sept. 11, 2001. Bruce, a vice president at the Westfield Group, was working temporarily out of the World Trade Center. Doug, part of Staten Island's elite firefighting unit Rescue 5, was among the first responders who rushed in.
Bruce was 53 and left behind a wife and three sons. Doug was 34 and left behind a wife and three daughters.
Nearly a quarter century later, the men accused of planning those attacks have still not faced trial. Many lawyers involved in the 9/11 case doubt they ever will, in part because the defendants – including the alleged ringleader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – were tortured in secret CIA prisons, resulting in unresolved legal fights over what evidence is admissible.
In the meantime, the case remains in legal limbo. The defendants have been held at the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for almost two decades. Thousands of 9/11 family members are still waiting for a resolution.
Since the deaths of their fathers, Eagleson, now 39, and Miller, now 30, have become advocates for other victims' families — Eagleson as head of the organization 9/11 Justice, Miller as a member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. They're trying to hold the government accountable for bringing the 9/11 case to completion.
They differ, however, on how to resolve it. Last summer, the defendants agreed to plea agreements that would have let them plead guilty and spend up to life in prison rather than continue toward a death-penalty trial. Victim family members had mixed feelings about that development. Miller supported it. Eagleson opposed it. The deals have since been canceled and are now the subject of ongoing litigation.
When the deals, formally called pre-trial agreements, were first announced, Miller recalled, "my first reaction was excitement that there was finally going to be this potential end in sight – like, wow, this could finally be over."
When the plea deals were withdrawn, "I was just frustrated that a decision wasn't made," she said. "I wish that those in power could make a decision in this case and stick to it, because this wound is still open."
Eagleson said he felt relief when the deals, which remain under court-ordered seal, were canceled.
"When folks ask me, 'How do you feel about plea agreements?,' well, I can't give you an honest answer, because nobody in our government is willing to share what the details of them are, and it's just another example of how our government has treated us year after year." he said. "The reason these plea deals exist is because Liz's father and my father were brutally murdered on live TV. You would think that we would be involved in the process. We should have answers to our questions, and no one's been able to provide those answers."
The deals could be reinstated through a pending appeals process, "but my position is that we need to avoid plea deals, because plea deals avoid a trial, and a trial avoids evidence," Eagleson said. "So temporarily there is this sense of relief that at least the worst-case scenario cannot pan out, which is these terrorists accept the plea deal, 9/11 gets wrapped up in a cute box with a bow on it and gets put on a shelf and sort of forgotten about, without having discovery, without having interviews, without fully getting our teeth into what these individuals know."
To bolster his push for a trial, Eagleson points to legal successes achieved by Sept. 11th families in a federal civil lawsuit they've filed in the Southern District of New York alleging that Saudi Arabia was more involved in the attacks than is currently known.
"Were it not for discovery, were it not for our ability for our lawyers to get in, have depositions, subpoena information from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and subpoena information from our own FBI, we wouldn't have known what we now know about who supported these hijackers and about the Saudi government's role," he said. "There are troves of documents which our government still continues to hide under the guise of state secrets, under the guise of ongoing investigations, under the guise of 'sources and methods,' and we were able to wrestle a lot of that free, at least in our civil litigation."
Eagleson added: "My point is, the justice system works. It may be slow, it may feel painful, but at the end of the day, the justice system, I believe, truly does what it's intended to do."
However, Miller notes that the Saudi litigation is taking place in federal court, whereas the 9/11 case is playing out in the U.S. military court, which has a track record of legal dysfunction. She says she supports plea deals in part because they could not be appealed, guaranteeing closure.
"I've had enough waiting," she said. "I want the same information and evidence that Brett does, and I'm very, very sick of waiting for it."
Miller also noted that the plea deals would have required the defendants to sign "stipulations of fact" detailing their roles in the 9/11 attacks, potentially unearthing additional information. But Eagleson said he is skeptical that the defendants would be truthful.
Because of those doubts, he said, "I believe that a trial is going to give us a more accurate sense of what really happened versus what a pre-written statement is going to say, so I'm willing to take that risk."
Miller said she's not confident that 9/11 families will get the information they want whether the case goes to trial or resolves with plea agreements. Despite years of so-called pre-trial hearings in the case, "we are no closer to a trial date, and that isn't fair to anyone." she said. "It's not fair to family members, it's not fair to the American people, or to the people around the world who want to see this case resolved."
Miller said she believes that if the 9/11 case had been handled by the U.S. federal courts rather than Guantánamo's military commission, the outcome would have been different.
"I just wish that, from the start, they brought these men to U.S. soil and dealt with it, and I think at this point it would have been over," she said. "If they were brought to U.S. soil, they either would have been dead or in prison for life, and this would have been ended."
"Agreed," Eagleson added. "Agreed with that."
Both say their advocacy for their fathers, and for other 9/11 victims, has taken a toll.
As the years tick by, pushing for a resolution is "a lot of work," Eagleson said. "It's mentally taxing. It keeps us away from our families, from our daily lives, keeps revisiting old wounds, and it makes it impossible to heal when here we are, 24 years later, and we're still fighting for truth. We're still fighting for justice."
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